For example, after his artful and accurate translation of Ovid's version of the Pyramus and Thisbe story, Bulfinch quotes lines from two poets, one of whom (Moore) is known today, the other (Mickle) not; refers to Davy's Safety Lamp (an oil lamp used by coal miners), apparently an object familiar to the general public of his time; and finally, in avuncular fashion, directs his younger readers toward Shakespeare. In this case, quoting directly from Bulfinch will best convey the author's mingling of classical and nonclassical elements throughout chapters I-XXXVI of The Age of Fable:

Moore, in the Sylph's Ball, speaking of Davy's Safety Lamp, is reminded of the wall that separated Thisbe and her lover:--

"O for that Lamp's metallic gauze,
  That curtain of protecting wire,
Which Davy delicately draws
  Around illicit, dangerous fire!

"The wall he sets 'twixt Flame and Air,
  (Like that which barred young Thisbe's bliss,)
Through whose small holes this dangerous pair
  May see each other, but not kiss."

In Mickle's translation of the Lusiad occurs the following allusion to the story of Pyramus and Thisbe, and the metamorphosis of the mulberries. The poet is describing the Island of Love.

"-- here each gift Pomona's hand bestows
In cultured garden, free uncultured flows,
The flavor sweeter and the hue more fair
Than e'er was fostered by the hand of care.
The cherry here in shining crimson glows,
And stained with lovers' blood, in pendent rows,
The mulberries o'erload the bending boughs."

If any of our young readers can be so hard-hearted as to enjoy a laugh at the expense of poor Pyramus and Thisbe, they may find an opportunity by turning to Shakespeare's play of the Midsummer Night's Dream, where it is most amusingly burlesqued. [2]

The inclusion of quotations from contemporary poetry in a work about classical mythology made The Age of the Fable a true innovation. Edward Everett Hale, writing his Preface to the Second Edition of The Age of the Fable in 1881, explains the innovation. Bulfinch's plan

. . . was not simply what has been done by Kingsley, Hawthorne, Coxe, and many other writers since Mr. Bulfinch's book was published, -- the writing, for young readers, of selected stories from the mythology, in modern language. What Mr. Bulfinch wanted to do, and succeeded in doing, was to connect the old stories with modern literature. [3]

What led Bulfinch to devise this plan, so novel for his era, of combining the ancient and classical with the modern and predominantly nonclassical? A crucial influence was his interest in science. Through this he learned to appreciate experimental methods, and through this, too, he became aware of the perils for ancient learning in an age increasingly dominated by scientific knowledge. For six years during the 1840s he served as secretary of the Boston Society of Natural History, a forum for many prominent scientists. Later, in his first book, Hebrew Lyrical History (1853), which served as a dress rehearsal for The Age of Fable, he consciously imitated the methods of scientific experimentation. In personal correspondence of the period, he states unequivocally that he is experimenting so as to hit upon pedagogically useful connections. In Hebrew Lyrical History Bulfinch arranged selected Psalms in an order which corresponds as nearly as possible to the order of events in the history of the Jews, believing that this arrangement would make the Psalms more comprehensible to readers. In many cases the order of the Psalms which he settled upon was conjectural with respect to historical events which they may have mirrored. Answering criticisms made by his brother, a minister, he says that his main point in rearranging the Psalms is pedagogical rather than scholarly. Above all, he wants "the reader to view the compositions as having a meaning." He is basing his conjectures on the best evidence he has, but this evidence is subject to change. It is primarily aimed at conveying meaning by showing connections:

Your criticism is well founded. No doubt the indications are slight in some cases, and wholly wanting in others to fix the purpose and occasion of the psalms. But in others they are plain enough, and, having arranged a certain number by indubitable marks, we may venture to arrange the others with some latitude of conjecture, as the naturalists do their plants or shells, not shutting their ears or eyes to any signs or marks that may hereafter be detected, and lead to an amendment in the arrangement. [4]

There are important differences between the two works, The Age of Fable and Hebrew Lyrical History. In the former Bulfinch pairs ancient and modern subject matters, while in Hebrew Lyrical History both subject matters are ancient. Nevertheless, his basic process is the same in each. This process consists of combining ancient learning (the Psalms; classical mythology) with a secondary interest (Jewish history; British and American poetry). An advertisement for Hebrew Lyrical History which appears at the back of the first edition of The Age of Fable confirms the view that Bulfinch and his publishers saw the two works as similar. The advertisement begins: "At first view this volume may seem to have little affinity with the preceding work; but it has this in common with it,--it aims to make available to the general public what has heretofore been the exclusive property of the scholar." [5] In The Age of Fable Bulfinch perfected his technique for spreading knowledge of ancient learning by combining it with a secondary interest of greater contemporary concern.

In combining classical and non-classical elements in The Age of Fable, Bulfinch was attempting to solve a particular problem: the lack of knowledge of classical mythology. In his Preface, which should be obligatory reading for teachers of Classics, he implies that the traditional way to learn this subject was the study of classical languages, and that many people are therefore excluded from familiarity with myths. He goes on to speak of new subject matter in the curriculum, i.e. science, which he distinguishes from the "science of mere fancy" which is mythology. "The time, even of the young," he says, "is claimed by so many sciences of facts and things," that it is doubtful that those who have not studied the Classics will set out to study mythology for itself. [6]

Bulfinch explains why lack of knowledge of mythology is a problem for the people of his time. One needs to know myths in order to read literature satisfactorily. British and American literature is full of allusions to classical myths, he tells us. Writers often refer to specific myths to clarify and vivify points which they are trying to make. However, many people do not know these stories and so cannot fully enjoy what they read. "Persons by no means illiterate say they cannot enjoy Milton."

"But how," he asks, "is mythology to be taught to one who does not learn it through the medium of Greece and Rome?" In a scientific age people are not likely to devote time to serious study of "set treatises" on mythology. Another possibility, reading translations of the ancient works with no updating, is futile, because these, like the originals, are full of recondite mythological allusions:

Let any one who doubts it read the first page of the "Aeneid," and see what he can make of "the hatred of Juno," "the decree of the Parcae," "the judgment of Paris," and the "honors of Ganymede," without this knowledge.

The classical dictionary, yet another possibility, in its usual format is an unattractive solution, as one must interrupt one's reading to use it, and the accounts therein are dry.

Bulfinch's solution was to combine the two elements, classical mythology and modern literature, in The Age of Fable. The book's very format illustrates the contemporary usefulness of classical mythology. In his Preface he highlights the importance of his experimental combination of classical and nonclassical elements by stating in italics that his "province" in the book is "mythology as connected with literature."

Bulfinch saw mythology as "useful knowledge," a phrase popular in his era and connected with one of the great causes of the period, the democratization of learning. In practice, his concept of "useful knowledge," applied to classical mythology, is based on a hardheaded view that if people are not directly attracted to this subject matter in and of itself (and most are not, he says), then it is necessary to adopt a pragmatic approach and to combine it with something in which they are already interested.

However, a principle like Horace's "omne tulit punctum qui miscuit utile dulci" (A.P. 343) governs Bulfinch's idea of "useful knowledge." According to his opening words in the Preface, knowledge is "useful" if it produces happiness:

If no other knowledge deserves to be called useful but that helps to enlarge our possessions or to raise our station in society, then Mythology has no claim to the appellation. But if that which tends to make us happier and better can be called useful, then we claim that epithet for our subject. For Mythology is the handmaid of literature; and literature is one of the best allies of virtue and promoters of happiness.

The emphasis on pleasure is apparent, also, in his dedication of The Age of Fable to Longfellow (not included in all editions of Bulfinch), where he describes his book as "this attempt to popularize mythology and extend the enjoyment of elegant literature."

This is not to say that Bulfinch's primary aim is to amuse. His main purpose is to instruct, and to do so carefully. Pragmatism and pleasure, the two sides of his concept of "useful knowledge," were the values which would draw large numbers of people to the subject matter he wanted to teach them. The two values were interrelated. Not only were myths useful for the reading of literature, but one's pleasure in reading literature would be extended by knowing myth. "Without a knowledge of mythology much of the elegant literature of our own language cannot be understood and appreciated," he claims (Preface).

The Age of Fable is a unique pedagogical prototype for today's teacher of Classics who is interested in reaching a wide and varied audience. Bulfinch's reputation as a Victorian fuddy-duddy is based on a superficial view of his work. [7] His thought is essentially modern. In one of the many paradoxes surrounding his life and work, Bulfinch, dealing in The Age of Fable with subject matter from classical antiquity, intuitively anticipated a pedagogical concept of a modern thinker who is anathema to most traditionalists, John Dewey (1859-1952). The Deweyan concept of "indirect interest" explains and makes comprehensible the process, like that which Bulfinch used, through which learners are guided to see in seemingly remote subject matter the connections to their immediate interests. [8]

Bulfinch and Dewey agree fundamentally on the role of the past in education. Bulfinch's pedagogical combination, "mythology as connected with literature," literature which is modern rather than ancient and which is popular with his contemporaries, demonstrates his belief that tradition is important as it relates to a particular societal use rather than in and of itself. Dewey expresses his view of tradition in such statements as this one, from Democracy and Education: "A knowledge of the past and its heritage is of great significance when it enters into the present, but not otherwise." To show how the past enters into the present, education is necessary, because the connections are not always obvious. For example, Dewey says, "To take an obvious illustration: The life of the ancient Greeks and Romans has profoundly influenced our own, and yet the ways in which they affect us do not present themselves on the surface of our ordinary experience." [9]

Classical teaching today continues to draw more upon traditional than experimental methodologies. Where are the followers of the deceptively Victorian author of The Age of Fable, who was in reality a visionary modern thinker about the role of Classics in American society? So far, the only large scale effort in experimental classical education in America has been the elementary school Latin movement of the 1960s and 1970s. [10] We need more Bulfinches now at all levels of education, well trained classicists, grounded in educational theory, willing to experiment to make clear to large audiences of young and old the usefulness and pleasure of classical knowledge and its relation to ever-shifting contemporary concerns. [11]

MARIE CLEARY

Amherst, Massachusetts
CW78.6 (1985)

Reprinted by permission of the Editor of Classical World.

²Bulfinch, p.48. William Julius Mickle's translation of the epic poem in Portuguese, by Luis de Camoens, called in English The Lusiad; or the Discovery of India, was issued in various editions in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Return

³Edward Everett Hale, ed., The Age of Fable, or Beauties of Mythology, by Thomas Bulfinch, rev. and enl. ed. (1881; rept. Boston 1906), p. vii. Return

⁴Bulfinch, Hebrew Lyrical History; or Select Psalms Arranged in the Order of the Events to Which They Relate (Boston 1853). The quotations are from Bulfinch to Stephen Greenleaf Bulfinch, 11 April 1851, Charles Bulfinch Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston. Return

⁵Bulfinch, The Age of Fable, or Stories of Gods and Heroes (Boston 1855). Return

⁶Bulfinch's Preface, cited several times below, appears in most editions, including the one mentioned in n. 1 above, pp.10-11. Because it is brief, no page citations are given, as these naturally vary according to edition. Return

⁷John Peradotto, Classical Mythology, An Annotated Bibliographical Survey (Urbana 1973), p. 15, calls The Age of Fable "this mid-Victorian mythological McGuffey." Compare this view with that of Dudley Fitts, Introductory Essay to Bulfinch, The Age of Fable, or Stories of Gods and Heroes (New York 1958), who, p. xiv, calls the book a "small classic, within its self imposed limitations, aimed at instruction and achieving delight." Fitts's long experience as a secondary-school teacher undoubtedly prepared him to recognize Bulfinch's pedagogical genius beneath the Victorian trappings of The Age of Fable.Return

⁸For a full exposition of the concept of "indirect interest," see John Dewey, Interest and Effort in Education (1913; rpt. Carbondale, IL 1975) Return

⁹Dewey makes these statements in Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education (1916; rpt. New York 1966), pp. 75, 19. Return

¹⁰For information about these programs, see, for example, Rudolph Masciantonio, "A Description of Latin Programs, Grades 4-6, in Selected Public Schools in Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles," Diss. Temple University 1977. Return

¹¹Thanks are extended to J. C. Douglas Marshall of St. Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire, for helpful suggestions during preparation of this article. For an extended treatment of Bulfinch's life and work, his intuitive anticipation of Deweyan concepts, and applications to classical education today, see Marie Cleary, "Thomas Bulfinch, The Age of Fable, and the Continuity of the Classics in American Education," Diss. University of Massachusetts at Amherst 1982. Return